Bushwalk Australia

I'm looking for a recommendation for either a new or second hand sewing machine, ideally that can sew heavy weight material such as leather as well as light weight materials. I don't think I need fancy stitching, just stiches for making bags and stuff sacks etc.

I use a 30yo Janome home, rather than an industrial, machine. I gather that a lot of the newer machines are quite light, which allows them to move around on the table more when sewing, whereas the older machines are heavier, and more stable.

The trick to sewing leather and webbing is to use the right needles, which I've found are sized 16/18 gauge, with leather cutting tips if you're trying to sew multiple layers of webbing. I use lighter needles when sewing light weight nylon.

The main stitches I use are fwd and reverse, and zigzag. The rest are wasted. If you want to overlock, get a separate overlocker.

A (been making all sorts of gear for the last 30yrs on this machine)

Singer 201 or 99 will do the job.

I've got two old janome manchines. no idea on model numbers though. I would think a simpler, tougher machine (not necessarily older, but those can be had cheaper, and refurbished for a reasonable cost) is best. since you will be using reverse quite a bit, make sure the reverse is pretty easy to use.

leather might be a bit much for many machines. I would start out carefully, and also give the motor ample time to cool. Sharp needles would help a lot. Some guys only use the machine to punch the holes, and then use a stitch awl to add the thread.

I've been looking into this recently - thinking about making bikepacking bags. A household machine would probably be adequate for lightweight stuff sacks, but it seems that for heavier fabrics you'll probably need a machine with a walking foot. Not something normally found on household machines. You may be able to get a walking foot attachment for a household machine but apparently it's not quite the same thing.

I use an old vintage machine

I used to buy and sell singer 201k ,99k 66k machines refurbishing them, but its a pain not having a zigzag stitch, especially on stitching that might take a load.
So in the end I managed to get a Brother / Jones JA-28, heavy duty all the accessories still available and sews through 8 layers of denim and 4 layers of leather.

An old pre 1960 domestic with zigzag is ideal for most stuff up to moderate weight/thickness for simple jobs.
I really don't understand why manufacturers stop making things that work brilliantly and replace them with rubbish.

It's when you try to use a domestic machine for silnylon that you find it is possible, but very inconsistent.
A domestic machine will not have any problem SEWING through silnylon, but it will have great difficulty FEEDING it evenly and you will need to pin pieces of material together to stop them from slipping and mis-aligning while sewing. Pinning puts holes in the material that will have to be sealed later. You can try to use double sided tape to stick the material together while you sew, but on silnylon it's more like static cling than actually sticking.

Ideally you want a needle feed zigzag machine - but to my knowledge these are "unicorn status".
Compound feed industrial machines "scrunch" up silnylon due to the walking foot movement and the light nature of the material.
I use a commercial needle feed straight stitch and would never go back.

All you need is a straight-stitch machine; zig-zag is nice but not necessary. The older pre 70's all metal machines are good but you really need a motor of around 1 amp (about 1/6 horsepower). Most domestic machines only use a 0.3amp motor. I use an old Pfaff 260 machine with an el-cheapo chinese 0.9amp electric motor. This will sew through four layers of 18oz. canvas comfortably or six layers of Cordura (1000 denier). For heavier work I use an old Singer 490 industrial machine I picked up on ebay for $20 back in 2008; sews like a dream but I wouldn't even attempt to sew silnylon on it. Any domestic machine will sew silnylon but it sure as heck is slippery stuff; place toilet paper between layers and use small paper spring clips to hold the layers together. Once the seam(s) is sewn tear out the toilet paper.
Old domestic machines to look for include Bernina, Janome, Pfaff and Necchi as well as the Singer 201. For canvas and leather you are best to find an old (or newer if you can afford it) industrial machine. Ebay often has industrial machines under $400. A fantastic, transportable light industrial machine is the Sailright (about $900 new); Google it or Youtube it.

wellsy wrote:... place toilet paper between layers and use small paper spring clips to hold the layers together. Once the seam(s) is sewn tear out the toilet paper...

Thanks. Hadn't thought of that.

Hi all rather than start a new thread I thought I'd just tack my question on here. I am thinking of taking the plunge and buying a machine for myself to have a go at a bit of DIY stuff like taprs/ stuff sacks etc. I have organized to go and have a look at a couple of machines for sale being a Singer 201K and 201P. My understanding is the 201P is built in Oz and some reviews say there slightly better than the K model but I have no idea if that's correct? Just after any advice as to which one might be better / differences etc? Only difference I am sure of is the 201P is foot operated I believe and the 201K might be knee operated?

Thanks

Mick